


Proof of Existence

by guyi (yujael)



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Wind Waker AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 11:48:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yujael/pseuds/guyi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zelda AU, The Wind Waker.</p><p>In which Ray is the Hero who can't control the wind properly without a compass, and Joel somehow has the last piece of the Triforce of Courage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Proof of Existence

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally going to be a short thing about Ray trying to polish his less than impressive Wind Waking skills and ruining Joel's day in the process, but then it changed into this. Whatever this is. Knowing about the Wind Waker and the Zelda timelines in general will probably be very helpful to you.

He's been through mud, blood, ash, dust, and assorted other things – but mostly blood and ash, really – to find the charts. He's been through even more to collect the outrageous amount of money that he needed to get them translated (weird guy, Tingle, but at least he was useful... and maybe the price wasn't _that_ outrageous, since he's the only guy who actually knows the language other than – well, fuck, at least Tingle won't need to be bothering him for anything). Finding the shards lying on the bottom of the ocean? No problem.

At least until now.

He infiltrated the goddamn _Ghost Ship_ for that chart, spent hundreds of rupees to get it translated, and what has it led him to? Nothing. The fate of the entire world is hanging in the balance and he can't get back to Hyrule because he _can't find the last shard of the Triforce_. 

Ganondorf is going to take over the world at this rate. 

The King of Red Lions – sorry, the King of _Hyrule_ – hadn't done much to reassure him, either. He insisted that the chart is correct, but Ray had circled the same area in the ocean for days, and his grappling hook had come up empty every single time. He was close to throwing in the towel and going back to Tingle, because the map is obviously _not_ correct.

He said as much to his talking boat. Or rather, he was dangerously close to crossing the line of snapping and shouting out of pure anger and exhaustion, and a sailor a mile away would have been able to tell that much from his distance. At that point, the King had suggested that he really do leave the area for a bit. 

“We should stop at Windfall for a night or two,” were his exact words. “Rest and get our heads on straight. And please refrain from scratching my wood.”

Ray hadn't realized he'd been doing anything like that, but the marks in the red said differently. He knew getting pissed at the water itself wasn't going to help at all, so he took a deep breath and accepted the suggestion. He whipped out the Wind Waker and, after only a _few_ false starts (not really his forte, music. Huh.), he called up a cyclone to drop them off at Windfall island.

Which is where he is now. It's the next day and he has been going around in circles since he woke up. It hasn't helped him figure out why the shard is not where the chart marks it to be. His only explanation is that the currents of the water must have moved it. 

He takes a break for a few minutes near noon to hide behind a tree and open up the pouch that's been hanging around his neck since he began his search. It has seven small pieces of what looks like gold, but really isn't. He doesn't know what the Triforce is, but it's much more than gold. And there's still another piece out there. Somewhere. If he could find it, that'd be fantastic. He hides the pouch under his tunic again, and gets back on the street.

There's a nice wind blowing through the town. It feels... well, nice. A little less clear than the air of the ocean, but maybe this is what he needs to really get calmed down. He hopes so.

–

The windmill is still stuck. There's a good southerly breeze going, but it does nothing for the mill. Ray stares up at it (a safe distance from Ivan and his Killer Bee gang, the buggers), his bottom lip between his teeth. He needs a distraction, just a minor one, from the shard. That'll really clear things up. Maybe he could help with the windmill problem. He knows there's a button, but without... wind...

“Well,” he says to himself as he crosses the square. “Might as well give it a shot.”

Fix windmill. Fix chart. Find shard. Save world. Perfect logic.

–

The logic is not so perfect when he climbs the ladder to the button on the side of the windmill. He doesn't have his compass with him right now and the Wind Waker doesn't exactly tell him which way to direct the wind for the windmill. It goes in whichever direction he points it in, but what direction is he supposed to point it in?

He probably should have thought this out better.

But he gets the Wind Waker out anyway. The townsfolk will forget about the weird changes in the wind when their mill is running again.

He tries south west first, but when he looks out from the little niche he's standing in, he realizes that he accidentally directed the wind south east. And the mill isn't spinning. Fuck.

Deciding to roll with the punches, he tries what he hopes is east. No dice. It blows right in his face then, but then it gives him an idea. If he directs it west...

That doesn't work either. North west? Ray checks the blades and admittedly gets a little giddy. So close. It must be north. He turns back to the button. He thinks he hears someone call nearby, but nobody here knows him, so he ignores it in favor of conducting the Wind's Requiem once again. His gestures are a little wilder, but he's just that giddy.

Somebody calls again, but their voice is lost in the great creaking and groans of wood from above. Ray punches the air, his feet leaving the button for a split second as he cheers to himself. He did it!

“What the hell are you doing up here?”

Ray freezes in place and stares at the figure now standing not five feet from him. Who is this? And when did he get here? Shit, does he see the baton?

Ray hides his hands behind his back. The stranger's eyes flicker briefly down, but he doesn't ask what the Wind Waker is. “Uh... can I help you?”

“Well, I did just ask you a question,” the guy says. He's taller than Ray and has a distinctly windblown appearance. Something about his face is familiar, though Ray's pretty sure he's never seen him before on any of his previous stops on the island. “So, yeah, you could answer it.”

“Oh, yeah, right... what did you ask?” Ray tries to sound innocent. Or at least non-criminal. He can still hear the sounds of the windmill moving, though. Fixing it can't be considered criminal, can it?

“I asked what you're doing up here, because if you're the one messing around with the wind, I'll have you know that you just lost me my new hat.”

Ray's grip on his baton tightens. “Can I ask in return how I would be messing around with the wind?”

“I don't know,” the guy says with a gesture at the wall. Or maybe the air behind him, where a steady wind is still going. “The wind has been changing directions suddenly for ten minutes and the windmill is finally moving again, and you're up here standing on the button. Maybe it's the fancy stick or maybe you're just good at timing wind storms, but either way, my hat is gone and I am not happy about it.”

“Hey, it's a conductor's baton,” Ray says quickly, brandishing the Waker at the man. He isn't very impressed with it. “And it's just a... collectable thing. I just carry it around because it's cool, you know? And as for the windmill, I'm just trying to help.”

“I saw you knock over three people in the street with your wind,” the guys says flatly. 

“Are you going to believe the wind wasn't me? Because it seems like a far fetched idea, between you and me.”

“I've heard weirder. One of my grandfathers and his friends once had a couple run ins with the Ghost Ship. Wasn't ever the same after that.”

“The Ghost Ship?” Ray scoffs, but in his mind, he's starting to panic. How the hell is he going to get out of this one? The King told him to keep things on the down low. Don't let anyone know who or what or anything lest Ganondorf's fiends come after them. “You know that's just a story, right?”

“So's the legendary hero,” retorts the stranger. “But you're obviously from Outset.”

Ray looks down at his outfit. “Come on, it's customary. It's important. Don't make fun of it.”

It also means a hell of a lot more than you think, he adds in his mind.

“Look,” he sighs. “I'm sorry about your hat, and I'm sorry if I knocked you over-”

“So you admit it – and you did knock me over, by the way-”

“Yeah, sure, I admit it,” Ray pockets the Wind Waker as he speaks. “Why don't you just let me make it up or something? I don't have a lot of money right now, but I can collect a bit and get a new hat. Or we could go to that Cafe Bar, or whatever it's called, because I'm pretty sure I have enough rupees for drinks. What do you say?”

The stranger considers it for a few seconds. “I can get my own hat,” he says. “Are you even legal?”

“I turned seventeen on my way here,” Ray says honestly. “But I didn't say it had be be ale or anything. Don't you drink coffee?”

“Of course I drink coffee.”

“Are _you_ legal?”

“For a couple years now, yeah. But coffee's good enough.”

“Then I can do that! So am I spending twenty rupees or not?”

The guy seems to be contemplating it again. Ray wonders if he's having second thoughts, but then he shrugs. “Yeah, sure.”

“All right, great. I'm Ray, by the way, and I really am sorry about the hat.”

“It's fine,” the stranger says as he turns and starts climbing down the ladder. “My name's Joel.”

He says it just before his head disappears below, and Ray can't help but notice the shape of his ears, which are only accentuated by his wild hair. There's aren't many people on Windfall, or anywhere, with pointed ears, he thinks as he follows Joel down. He wonders, considering all he's learned about this world and world below, if that means that Joel's blood, and the blood of other pointy eared people, is connected a little stronger to their ancestors'.

–

The cafe is dim and cozy at this time of day. Past lunch, but not in time for dinner. It's quiet, but not awkwardly.

Well, in Ray and Joel's case, it is a little awkward. The stools are a tad too small for Joel's height and Ray's trying not to comment it, and Joel might be trying not to comment on something of Ray's, too. They work by it. Ray finds it easier to handle than the search for the final shard to the Triforce.

He orders them a couple coffees, and when he counts his remaining money, he comes up with a remainder of exactly two rupees. At least he's not starting from complete scratch. Then they sit on their stools and stare at the paintings on the wall over each others' shoulders. Ray also tries not to stare at Joel's hair, but he still hasn't determined if he styled it the way it is, or if the wind did. Or maybe it's natural. 

“I hope you're not looking for much more than coffee,” he says when the silence starts getting uncomfortable. “Because I literally only have two rupees left.”

Joel shakes his head and shrugs. “I only got tripped up by the wind, really, so one coffee's good.”

Ray nods, and a few seconds later, Gillian calls him back to the counter to get their coffees. He mumbles an “excuse me” and does a weird hop-slide down the stairs to the counter to grab the mugs. Gillian smiles and winks at him when he picks them up, and when Ray tries to tell her that she shouldn't be flirting with a seventeen year old, she laughs and whispers across the counter.

“Not you and me, kid,” she nods at the tables behind him. “I'm always seeing him all by himself. It's good to see something else.”

She smiles, and Ray starts trying to come up with several excuses at once when he realizes she's talking about him and Joel. He walks backwards, spitting out three different sentences at the same time. “No, we're not – I'm just trying to – I kind of owe him for-”

And he only remembers that there are stairs behind him when he's stumbling and falling backwards, and the mugs are flying from his hands as he tries to grab the railing and stop his fall.

It's not the railing that stops him, though. He hears a stool scrape the floor and Joel's voice as the mugs collide with something, and then he's being held a foot off the floor by Joel.

“Watch where you're going, Ray!” he says, pulling Ray upright. Gillian looks a little worried, but at the same time she's making spinning motions with her fingers. Ray turns around, and Joel is frowning a bit at him. Ray starts to look down at Joel's hands on his shoulders, but then his eyes get stuck half way there at Joel's chest.

More specifically, what's hanging against his chest.

A strong cord is tried around Joel's neck and wrapped around a small piece of what looks like gold to the untrained eye, but Ray knows all too well that it isn't. It must have been hidden under his shirt before, he thinks, his mind running way too fast. And it slipped out just now, and Ray can't believe it – how did – when – _how?_ How did _Joel_ get a piece of the Triforce?

“Ray?” Joel waves his hand in front of Ray's face, and Ray blinks rapidly. “Are you okay?”

Ray tears his eyes away from the necklace – the goddamn _Triforce_ , right in front of him – and finds concern in Joel's eyes. Or maybe that's apprehension. Joel might have caught Ray's line of sight, too, because as soon as Ray meets his eyes, he tucks the shard under his collar.

“Seriously, Ray,” Joel says, and Ray finally manages to locate his voice.

“Er – yeah, yeah, I'm okay, I'm just...” What's a good excuse for this? I saw your necklace and thought, wow, that's a lot of gold right there? No. “I was just feeling a bit light headed. Happens when you run on less than twenty rupees for long enough, right?”

Incredulity flashes over Joel's face. “And you're sitting here buying me coffee because I lost my hat? You could have told me that.”

“Well, I owe you. I can get the money back, anyway – without stealing, mind you.”

“I never said that.” Joel finally lets his hands fall away from Ray's shoulders. He signals Gillian at the counter and then leads Ray back to the table. “Look, we can get new coffees, but I'm just going to feel bad if you walk out of here with just coffee.”

Ray almost says that he doesn't have to, but then his eyes flicker to the cord around Joel's neck. Not only does he want to know how he got that shard, but he actually needs to figure out how to get it himself. He nods and sits down carefully while Joel starts picking up the mugs, and a moment later, Gillian is bringing them new coffees and a couple slices of what smells like banana bread. In the time it takes Joel to return to his seat, Ray has half a plan formed.

“So,” he starts, his throat dry. “The Ghost Ship, huh?”

“Oh, now you want to hear the story?” Joel asks with one eyebrow cocked. 

Ray shrugs. “Well, if you're willing to believe I can control the wind, anything can go, right?”

There's a bit of a smile tugging Joel's lips. “Fair enough, I guess. It's not a very long story, though. My great-great-grandfather was a fisherman, which isn't surprising, but there was this one trip he went on with a couple buddies where they got blown way off course by a storm. According to the story, they ended up at Crescent Island, and they saw it. He didn't believe it was anything special, so he was just going to sail right through it, and... Well.”

“Didn't go so well?” Ray suggests, taking a bite of bread.

Joel shakes his head. “They lost a guy. But my grandfather found some treasure chart in there. This real old thing.”

Ray tries not to bit his lip. “Did he keep it?”

“Originally,” Joel nods. “Had it for a while after he managed to escape with his friend. He got it deciphered and went out again to look for the treasure.” At this, Joel fishes out the shard from under his shirt. “And he found this. Pure gold. Really valuable.” 

Ray tries to be discreet about his staring. Then the shard is gone again. “Then what?”

“Then he decided, well, I found this, maybe there's more. So he went to go find the Ghost Ship again, and for some dumb reason he took the chart with him. Maybe to see if it matched anything else on the ship. I don't know, but when he got back on the ship, he lost the chart. Ghost monsters stole it back from him and he had to get out before they got him, too. Apparently he got a bit weirder everyday after that.”

Joel finishes his tale with a note of suspicion. Ray turns it all over in his mind while Joel stares down his mug. If his grandfather lost the chart again in the ship, that would explain how Ray has it now. And why the Triforce shard isn't where it says it should be. Judging by the sideways looks other patrons are giving their table, Ray knows that there are very few people on the island who actually believe the story, and he's one of them. Before, he would have said no way, but now... A hell of a lot's changed, and he knows the story is true. The proof is right in front of him.

He has to say it. Somehow. He takes a deep breath. Then another. Another. Damn it.

Joel notices his deep breathing and frowns. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, my head's all good, I'm only...” Ray purses his lips. There isn't much he can say here, especially with other people around. But he needs that shard. He curls his hands into fists under the table and lets out the breath he's been holding. “Listen, can I talk to you later?”

“Later as in tomorrow, or...?”

“There's actually something that I need to be doing,” Ray explains quickly. “Like, really soon. I'm running out of time, and this is important. I need to talk to you, and nobody can know.”

He says the last part under his breath, and Joel has to lean in closer to hear him continue.

“Can you meet me on the shore tonight?”

Joel looks slightly confused, but he hasn't left the table yet. “Do you think I'm insane? Are you going to cut me up with you're sword?”

The weight of the Master Sword becomes a little more pronounced, and Ray shakes his head. “No, but this is really important. Earth shatteringly important.”

“Uh... I'm not sure what's all going on, but... all right. If this is _that_ important, I can do that.”

Ray lets out a long breath and leans back. “Thanks, man. You seriously have no idea how much this means to me.”

And to everything else.

Joel nods, but he doesn't say anything. He picks up his mug slowly, and sips his coffee even slower. Eventually, Ray figures it's a good idea to finish off his bread.

–

They leave the cafe and part ways outside, and Joel promises to remember to come to the shore. As soon as he's out of sight, Ray runs so fast to the docks that he nearly trips over his own feet. The King isn't going to believe this, he thinks gleefully.

And when he arrives at the dock with nearly no breath and spits everything out in one long sentence, the King doesn't believe him. But Ray swears on the gods in every face that he knows they've existed in that he is telling the truth. Somehow, some crazy sailor found the Ghost Ship, found the chart, found the shard, and it's been on Windfall Island ever since. And he's going to get it. Tonight. Hopefully.

Ray is praying to the gods that he'll get it tonight.

–

He doesn't want Joel to miss him or anything, so he stands right in the middle of the beach and waits until Joel appears. The beach and the field are both empty when a tall figure comes into view on the path. Joel spots him quickly and makes his way down the hill, and Ray waves his over to the little cove hidden by the cliff. The same place the King of Red Lions brought him and told him everything.

Hopefully their talk won't end up in Joel going on a quest to defeat the greatest evil known to man, too.

“So, what's so urgent and important that we have to stand out here?” Joel asks when they're both under the cliff, standing almost too close for comfort in the limited space out of the water.

And in hind sight, Ray thinks that he should have planned this part out better, because the first words out of his mouth are, “I need your necklace.”

Joel draws back immediately, an expression somewhat like betrayal on his face. “Say that again?”

Ray berates himself in his head. “This is going to sound crazy – I mean, even in comparison to your great-great-grandfather's Ghost Ship tale, this is going to sound bad.”

“Well, if you could give me the flat out truth, that'd be good,” Joel replies, his voice taking on that flatness again. “This has been in my family for generations, my father gave it to me when I was just a kid, and it's one of the very few things that I've actually been able to hold on to my entire life. I'm not just going to give it away – and considering you only have two rupees, I highly doubt you could buy it.”

“I'm not going to try and buy it,” Ray says quickly. “Because first of all, you're mostly right. That thing you have there – it's way, _way_ more valuable than gold. You don't even know how valuable it is.”

“You say that like it isn't gold.”

“That's because it isn't.”

The look Joel gives him makes Ray think that there are a lot of things that he's suspicious about. “Then what is it?”

“I don't know.”

“You don't know.” 

“No, but... Oh.... Okay, okay, here goes...” Ray takes a couple breaths and then says, “Joel, you know about all those really old legends, right? The ones about that kingdom with the hero and the sacred power and the evil guy who destroyed it all because the hero never came back?”

“How is that relevant?”

“Because they're true. All of them.”

A myriad of expressions pass over Joel's features, but a few seconds later, his face goes completely blank. He stares at Ray with complete neutrality (or Ray hopes that's what that is). For a long time, he doesn't say anything. And then Ray sees his lips press together slightly, and he knows he's losing him. 

He can't afford to fuck this up.

So he says it all. 

He tells Joel about the legends and just how exactly they're true. He tells him that if he could walk the bottom of the ocean, he'd see it all. He tells him about the pirate named Lindsay and her crew of loud mouthed, big nosed, drunken ass pirates, and he tells him about their true roles. He tells him about the Wind Waker, even shows it to him. He tells him about the pearls, the gods, the sword on his back and the tunic that matches the Hero of Time and he tells him about the Triforce, about going half mad trying to find the last piece, and through it all, Joel's turning paler and his face is as still as ever.

And Ray doesn't know what's making him tell Joel all of this. Maybe it's the pointed ears. He's got a stronger connection to their ancestors, just like Ray does, and he feels like he should know why that is. He feels like he owes it, because if he doesn't pull this off, at least Joel will be able to know why his life, and those of every one else, is about to become hell. 

At the same time, it might be something else.

When he finishes explaining everything, he points to the beach beyond the cove, says with hardly any breath left, “And if you need proof, I can get you proof, because I have a magical talking boat who's not actually a boat, and he can tell you _everything_ , just like he told me!”

Joel opens and closes his mouth three times before he can actually get words out. “A... talking boat... will prove to me that this is all real?”

Ray nods. “Yeah, he will, you just have to hold on for a minute.” He puts his hands on Joel's shoulders, pushes down to get his point across. “Just stay here, don't go anywhere, I'll be right back!”

Then he's gone, sprinting out of the cove, up the hill and to the dock.

“Do you have the shard?” The King of Red Lions asks him. 

Ray's already in the boat by the time he's done speaking. “No,” he answers, “not yet. We have to go over there, though.”

He changes the direction of the wind real quick, and they start off slow when they leave the dock, but then the sail picks up the wind and they're shooting along the beach, and Joel is leaping back with a shout that echoes all around when Ray and the King come splashing into the cove.

“Is this your talking boat?” Joel asks, extremely apprehensive. Ray's just glad he stayed.

“Yeah, this is – Joel, King of Red Lions,” Ray points to Joel and the boat as he climbs out, then from the boat to Joel. “King of Red Lions, Joel.”

“And he's going to tell me... what?”

It's silent, and for a split second, Ray is panicking. What if the boat can't actually talk to Joel? But there's something in the King's carved face as he stares at Joel, as if he's judging him for something. Joel is giving the boat a wary look, leaning closer, but then the King finally opens his mouth and speaks, and Joel's jumping back again and knocking his shoulders against the rocks.

“Joel, you must listen to me,” the King says. Joel's face is completely unreadable then. 

But Ray thinks that he's convinced now that the King is speaking to him.

When the King of Hyrule finishes much the same speech that Ray had given Joel earlier, Ray is sure of it. Joel looks much calmer, as if he either needed to be told the story a second time over, or he just needed a few more minutes to get his reaction straight.

Either way, he takes the King's story in much better stride, and by the end of it, he's drawing the shard out from under his shirt. He shows it to the King, who says, “Yes, that is indeed the final piece that we speak of.”

Joel stares at it. Then at Ray, the King, the shard again. Slowly, he lifts the cord over his head and lets it hang from his fingers, watches it glinting in the moonlight. Ray knows the expression on his face now. It's like saying good bye to an old friend, reluctance and all.

“I can't say I can get it back to you,” Ray says quietly, apologetic. “But there's only one thing standing in our way right now, and it's the fact that we can't get back down to the world below... without that shard.”

“For the sake of everything we know, we need to assemble the Triforce,” the King adds.

Joel drops his hand down to his side. The shard still hangs from his fingers while he looks at the ground. “You know something? If you hadn't taken so long trying to fix the windmill, this wouldn't have happened. We're all standing here – floating, in your case – because you've had that Wind Waker thing for weeks, and you still can't figure out which way to send the wind.”

Ray ignores the look the King gives him. “Everyone makes a mistake or two while they're out to save the world.”

Joel snorts quietly. “Who else do you know that's on a journey to save the world?”

Ray shrugs. “There's a couple, I think.” 

Three, unless Ray should only be counting people who are physically on the journey. The sages and the princess count in his opinion. 

“And you just need this, then.” It's not much of a question. Ray feels a weird elation in his chest when Joel starts picking at the cord wrapped around the shard, loosening it, letting it fall into the water. Ray draws out the pouch under his tunic, and when Joel has just the shard in his hand, Ray dumps the rest of them into his palm, shows them to Joel. Joel doesn't say anything, so Ray takes that as an okay to assemble his pieces until there's only one missing. 

Joel rolls it over in his palm once, and then he reaches out and drops in into Ray's hand, and before Ray can so much as thank him the shards light up, and he and Joel both have to look away and cover their eyes as the light gets stronger. Then the weight in Ray's hand is gone. He opens his eyes just in time to see the completed Triforce of Courage, and then it disappears in another gold flash. 

Joel stares at the space where it used to be, and he continues to do so when Ray turns his hand over to find the glowing piece on the back of his hand. It feels warm. Ray stares at it too. But then he looks up at Joel, and it's like he doesn't even know what to do now.

“I've had that for more than ten years,” he murmurs. “And now it's not even a physical object anymore.”

Ray wants to apologize to him, but he doesn't know how. He also doesn't know why the concept seems so difficult. Didn't he just acquire the Triforce of Courage? “I can... try to make it up to you,” he says carefully. “I know I can't replace it or anything, but... Well, if things start getting nasty, you'll know what happened, but I'm kind of banking on everything going well. Or as well as things can go at this point. I can come back after – if you don't mind, of course.”

Joel says nothing.

“I can bring a new hat.”

That gets a little smile. 

“I know a pirate, too, so I can try and come back with more than two rupees. Maybe a purple one or two.”

Joel runs his fingers through his hair, which is still as wild as before. “You don't have to come back with anything. If everything goes well, and you... come back at all, I guess that's – that's okay.”

Ray nods, and Joel nods back. For the sake of it, and a lack of much more to do, they exchange a couple more. Then Ray steps aside to let Joel leave the cove when the King of Red Lions reminds him that he and Ray have to set sail as soon as possible. Preferably immediately. 

Joel goes to stand on the beach as Ray climbs into the boat and cruises out of the cove. He's still watching as Ray sets up the sail again, looks at his sea chart and compass, and raises his baton again to redirect the wind.

And as he's doing it, he wonders if the Hero of Time had anyone seeing him off before he went to save Hyrule. He thinks he knows how Joel's face seems familiar to him, but he doesn't say it. He keeps it to himself. 

The wind blows south east, and it picks up the sail at once. Ray turns to see Joel still standing on the beach. A moment later, his face is too far away to distinguish. Then he's just a shadow. Then he's a pin prick against the shrinking image of the island. Then its just the ocean, and Ray puts his back to the blowing wind. 

–

Ganondorf mentions something about the Hero of Time and a companion. Apparently he wouldn't have minded finding the companion along with the princess and the Triforce. Ray feigns confusion. Ganondorf laughs at him.

He leaves the Master Sword in the world below, thrust into the stone figure's head. After that, he doesn't know what happens to it. He has the feeling someone else will hold it again one day. Some other hero.

–

They go to Outset first. He visits Grandma, finally spends time together as a family with his sister. It feels like it's been forever. Lindsay and her pirates leave for a few days, but somehow they're aware of Ray's plan to go to Windfall, and they come back just as suddenly as they left. Then they set sail together.

He doesn't have the Master Sword anymore, but he has a new one from Lindsay, and the Mirror Shield, and everything else. It's all tucked away in the boat that is no longer sentient. He still calls it the King of Red Lions, though, because it just feels right.

They go to Windfall, and Ray doesn't know if it's because of pure chance or if he's been waiting on the beach everyday, but Joel is laying in the middle of the field with a pig passing by when Ray spies the island through his telescope. It's not long before he also sees that Joel can see them coming. 

The pirate ship is hard to miss, after all, even when the sun is setting.

They both drop anchor as close to the cove as they can get, and Ray knows that keeping the pirates away, especially Lindsay, is going to be impossible, so he just rolls with it and walks out onto the hill.

Joel still isn't wearing a hat. Good thing Lindsay not only has a stash of rupees, but also hats.

And Ray has a feeling that he's been through a hell of a lot more than mud and blood and dust and ashes to get to this point, but he doesn't tell anyone that, either. Maybe one day (and maybe a really long time from now, when something else rises out of what he sealed), but not today.

**Author's Note:**

> Side note: Skyward Sword explains a lot about the timelines, and I based my own head canon on it. Since that game, three people (the princess, the evil guy, and the chosen hero) have been repeatedly reincarnated, and for the purposes of this story, I added a fourth, who is basically the hero's companion. Sometimes the hero and his companion are both on the quest at the same time (I like to think that they did Ocarina of Time like that), or sometimes the hero just returns multiple times to see the companion, but somehow they always end up connected. 
> 
> In the case of this story, Joel was kind of late to the party, but he and Ray ended meeting still.
> 
> I might actually expand this a bit. I just like the concept so much.


End file.
